the evil gene

“Started with a completely different story that refused to be trimmed to 100 words. My cautionary fable was slightly more willing to go down a size or two. And, the moral of that story is . . .,” she sighed. For Moral Mondays, July 19, 2016.

It’s not easy living with an evil gene; knowing that your inherent nature, stamped on strands of DNA, is to not be kind, compassionate, giving, loving. That you were born to lie, hate, cheat, demean, destroy. Resisting comes with a price: my aunt drank; my father retreated into himself. Others, luxuriate in it, welcome the perceived power. My uncle stole from his family due to greed, not need. Never enough. Looked me in the eyes and lied, and lied, and lied. For him, money was his root of the evil family tree we sprang from. Me, I am ever watchful. {100 words}

Ooh, very good! Love the idea that the evil gene is inherited – is it natural or manipulated to make them that way? Or is it just the narrator’s excuse for not being good? A great examination of nature versus nurture, because all their family are bad, is it genes or example that the narrator takes after?

It usually is a bit of both with us all, but it’s always interesting to see how siblings are different, don’t you think? The same parents, supposedly the same upbringing, yet how many siblings have we all met who are like chalk and cheese? Oh to be an psychologist or sociologist and work out why :)

“I’d like to know too. I wonder about internal dynamics, generic “throwbacks,” birth order, so many variables. My father and his younger brother might as well have been totally unrelated physically, emotionally, and certainly character-wise.” she mused. “I’m an only who is and isn’t the sum of my paternal and maternal genetics.”

It is an interesting, confusing field of study – probably with too many subtle influences and variables for anyone to understand entirely. I know families like your dad’s too – siblings utterly different. Fascinating stuff